Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture.

What exactly is intelligence?

While intelligence is one of the most talked about subjects in psychology, there is no standard
definition of what exactly constitutes intelligence. Some researchers have suggested that intelligence
is a single, general ability, while others believe that intelligence encompasses a range of aptitudes,
skills, and talents.

How Psychologists Define Intelligence

intelligence involves the level of ability to do the following:

 Learn: The acquisition, retention, and use of knowledge is an important component of

intelligence.
 Recognize problems: To put knowledge to use, people must be able to identify possible
problems in the environment that need to be addressed.
 Solve problems: People must then be able to take what they have learned to come up with a
useful solution to a problem they have noticed in the world around them.1

How the Concept of Intelligence Developed

The term "intelligence quotient," or IQ, was first coined in the early 20th century by a German
psychologist named William Stern. Psychologist Alfred Binet developed the very first intelligence
tests.

Theories of Intelligence

Different researchers have proposed a variety of theories to explain the nature of intelligence.

Charles Spearman: General Intelligence

British psychologist Charles Spearman (1863–1945) described a concept he referred to as general

intelligence or the g factor. People who performed well on one cognitive test tended to perform well
on other tests, while those who scored badly on one test tended to score badly on others. He
concluded that intelligence is a general cognitive ability that can be measured and numerically
expressed.

Louis L. Thurstone: Primary Mental Abilities

Psychologist Louis L.Thurstone (1887–1955) offered a differing theory of intelligence. Instead of

viewing intelligence as a single, general ability, Thurstone's theory focused on seven different primary
mental abilities. The abilities that he described include:

 Verbal comprehension
 Reasoning
 Perceptual speed
 Numerical ability
 Word fluency
 Associative memory
 Spatial visualization4
Howard Gardner: Multiple Intelligences

His theory describes eight distinct types of intelligence based on skills and abilities that are valued in
different cultures.

The eight kinds of intelligence Gardner described are:

 Visual-spatial intelligence
 Verbal-linguistic intelligence
 Bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence
 Logical-mathematical intelligence
 Interpersonal intelligence
 Musical intelligence
 Intrapersonal intelligence
 Naturalistic intelligence

Robert Sternberg: Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

Psychologist Robert Sternberg defined intelligence as "mental activity directed toward purposive

adaptation to, selection, and shaping of real-world environments relevant to one's life." While he
agreed with Gardner that intelligence is much broader than a single, general ability, he instead
suggested that some of Gardner's types of intelligence are better viewed as individual talents.
Sternberg proposed what he referred to as "successful intelligence," which involves three different
factors:

 Analytical intelligence: Your problem-solving abilities.

 Creative intelligence: Your capacity to deal with new situations using past experiences and
current skills.
 Practical intelligence: Your ability to adapt to a changing environment

Sensitivity

Sensitivity is the strength of the capacity to detect and discriminate stimuli. It is how strong the
perception of a stimulus is in an individual. A person who has higher sensitivity will perceive a
stimulus more strongly at a lower level than someone who is less sensitive to the stimulus. If two
people are looking at a light that is increasing in brightness the one who is more sensitive will squint
and close their eye sooner than the person who is less sensitive. People have variations in sensitivities
to different stimuli.

Although intimately related, sensation and perception play two complimentary but different roles in
how we interpret our world.  Sensation refers to the process of sensing our environment through
touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell.  This information is sent to our brains in raw form where
perception comes into play.  Perception is the way we interpret these sensations and therefore make
sense of everything around us.

Being highly sensitive basically means that you have heightened sensory awareness. You notice
things, both consciously and unconsciously, that affect the five senses more than most people. Lights
are brighter, traffic is louder, that wool sweater your mother knitted is itchy. You find yourself hiding
out in the bathroom at parties without really knowing why, until you realise how much calmer you
feel when you're away from all the crowds. Experts are still trying to determine what exactly makes
some of us more sensitive than others and how it all works, but it has something to do with your
central nervous system. Basically, HSPs tend to absorb more information from their environment than
other folks, making the world an often highly overstimulating place.

What does it mean to sense something?

Sensory receptors are specialized neurons that respond to specific types of stimuli. When sensory
information is detected by a sensory receptor, sensation has occurred. For example, light that enters
the eye causes chemical changes in cells that line the back of the eye. These cells relay messages, in
the form of action potentials to the central nervous system.

we have five senses: vision, hearing (audition), smell (olfaction), taste (gustation), and touch
(somatosensation). It turns out that this notion of five senses is oversimplified. We also have sensory
systems that provide information about balance (the vestibular sense), body position and movement
(proprioception and kinesthesia), pain (nociception), and temperature (thermoception).

The sensitivity of a given sensory system to the relevant stimuli can be expressed as an absolute
threshold. Absolute threshold refers to the minimum amount of stimulus energy that must be present
for the stimulus to be detected 50% of the time.

It is also possible for us to get messages that are presented below the threshold for conscious
awareness—these are called subliminal messages. A stimulus reaches a physiological threshold when
it is strong enough to excite sensory receptors and send nerve impulses to the brain: This is an
absolute threshold. A message below that threshold is said to be subliminal: We receive it, but we are
not consciously aware of it

PERCEPTION

While our sensory receptors are constantly collecting information from the environment, it is
ultimately how we interpret that information that affects how we interact with the world. Perception
refers to the way sensory information is organized, interpreted, and consciously experienced.

One way to think of this concept is that sensation is a physical process, whereas perception is
psychological. For example, upon walking into a kitchen and smelling the scent of baking cinnamon
rolls, the sensation is the scent receptors detecting the odor of cinnamon, but the perception may be
“Mmm, this smells like the bread Grandma used to bake when the family gathered for holidays.”

Although our perceptions are built from sensations, not all sensations result in perception. In fact, we
often don’t perceive stimuli that remain relatively constant over prolonged periods of time. This is
known as sensory adaptation.

There is another factor that affects sensation and perception: attention. Attention plays a significant
role in determining what is sensed versus what is perceived. Imagine you are at a party full of music,
chatter, and laughter. You get involved in an interesting conversation with a friend, and you tune out
all the background noise. If someone interrupted you to ask what song had just finished playing, you
would probably be unable to answer that question.

Creativity

What do the following have in common: the drug penicillin, the Eiffel Tower, the film Lord of the
Rings, the General Theory of Relativity, the hymn Amazing Grace, the iPhone, the novel Don
Quixote, the painting The Mona Lisa, a recipe for chocolate fudge, the soft drink Coca-Cola, the video
game Wii Sports, the West Coast offense in football, and the zipper? You guessed right! All of the
named items were products of the creative mind. Not one of them existed until somebody came up
with the idea.

Creativity: What Is It?

Creativity happens when someone comes up with a creative idea. An example would be a creative
solution to a difficult problem. But what makes an idea or solution creative? Creativity is the ability to
generate, create, or discover new ideas, solutions, and possibilities. Very creative people often have
intense knowledge about something, work on it for years, look at novel solutions, seek out the advice
and help of other experts, and take risks. Although creativity is often associated with the arts, it is
actually a vital form of intelligence that drives people in many disciplines to discover something new.
Creativity can be found in every area of life, from the way you decorate your residence to a new way
of understanding how a cell works.

Although psychologists have offered several definitions of creativity (Plucker, Beghetto, & Dow,
2004; Runco & Jaeger, 2012), probably the best definition is the one recently adapted from the three
criteria that the U.S. Patent Office uses to decide whether an invention can receive patent protection
(Simonton, 2012).

The first criterion is originality. The idea must have a low probability. Indeed, it often should be
unique. Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity certainly satisfied this criterion. No other
scientist came up with the idea.

The second criterion is usefulness. The idea should be valuable or work. For example, a solution must,
in fact, solve the problem.

An original recipe that produces a dish that tastes too terrible to eat cannot be creative. In the case of
Einstein’s theory, his relativity principle provided explanations for what otherwise would be
inexplicable empirical results.

The third and last criterion is surprise. The idea should be surprising, or at least nonobvious (to use
the term used by the Patent Office). For instance, a solution that is a straightforward derivation from
acquired expertise cannot be considered surprising even if it were original.

Einstein’s relativity theory was not a step-by-step deduction from classical physics but rather the
theory was built upon a new foundation that challenged the very basis of traditional physics.

When applying these three criteria, it is critical to recognize that originality, usefulness, and surprise
are all quantitative rather than qualitative attributes of an idea. Specifically, we really have to speak of
degree to which an idea satisfies each of the three criteria.

In addition, the three attributes should have a zero point, that is, it should be possible to speak of an
idea lacking any originality, usefulness, or surprise whatsoever. Finally, we have to assume that if an
idea scores zero on any one criterion then it must have zero creativity as well.

Logical reasoning

A logical reasoning test is a type of aptitude test that is widely used by corporate employers to help
assess candidates during their recruitment process. Logical reasoning aptitude tests are designed to
measure your ability to draw logical conclusions based on statements or arguments, and to identify the
strengths and weaknesses of those arguments.

These tests are designed to assess your logical reasoning ability using the information provided. A
logical reasoning test is a fundamental part of any assessment. Below follows an overview of the most
commonly used logical reasoning tests:

Today, logical reasoning is the umbrella term for at least three different types of reasoning. These are
known as deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning and abductive reasoning and are based on
deduction, induction and abduction respectively.

Deductive Reasoning

In general terms, deductive reasoning means using a given set of facts or data to deduce other facts
from by reasoning logically. Deductive reasoning can be used to proof that these new facts are true.
For instance, the classic example:

 
Major premise: All humans are mortal
Minor premise: Socrates is human
Conclusion: Socrates is mortal
 
Applying the deduction method on the general rule “all humans are mortal” (major premise) in the
specific situation “Socrates is human” (minor premise), the conclusion can be drawn that “Socrates is
mortal”.
Notice that deductive reasoning provides no new information, it only rearranges information that is
already known into a new statements or truths. So deductive reasoning is “if this is true, than this is
also true”. Deductive reasoning tests typically contain syllogisms as questions.

Inductive Reasoning

Inductive reasoning is looking for a pattern or a trend and then generalizing it. When you generalize
and extrapolate the information, you don’t know for sure if this trend will continue, but you assume it
will. You therefore don’t know for sure that a conclusion based on inductive reasoning will be 100%
true. A famous hypothesis is:

‘all swans are white’

 
This conclusion was taken from a large amount of observations without observing any black swan and
consequently logically assumes that black swans don’t exist. Inductive reasoning is therefore a risky
form of logical reasoning since the conclusion can as easily be incorrect when, looking at the swans
example, a black swan is spotted.
Another common example of inductive reasoning used in actual aptitude testing are number
sequences. Try to determine the pattern, generalize and extrapolate to find the next number in the
series.

6, 9, 12, 15, ?

 
The logical answer to this trend seems 18, but you can’t ever be 100% sure, maybe the number
represent days or hours or something weird that you don’t expect and which causes extrapolating to
give different results.
Perhaps the most common form of inductive reasoning tests consist of non-verbal figure sequences
and are also known as abstract reasoning tests. They follow the same methodology as mention earlier,
find the pattern, and extrapolate to find the next figure.

 
 
That is what inductive reasoning is all about, looking at the given data, making a generalization, and
extrapolate the pattern. In all the above examples, there is a sense of a generalized judgment, which
may or may not turn out to be true. Whereas in deductive reasoning, there is no judgment. The
conclusions are mostly true, based on the given situation.
 

Abductive Reasoning

Abductive reasoning is the third form of logical reasoning and is somewhat similar to inductive
reasoning. It was first introduced by the term “guessing”, since conclusions drawn here are based on
probabilities. In abductive reasoning it is presumed that the most plausible conclusion is also the
correct one. Example:

 
Major premise: The jar is filled with yellow marbles
Minor premise: Bob has a yellow marble in his hand
Conclusion: The yellow marble in Bob’s hand was taken out of the jar
 
By abductive reasoning, the possibility that Bob took the yellow marble from the jar is reasonable,
however it is purely based on the speculation. The yellow marble could have been given to Bob by
anyone, or Bob could have bought a yellow marble at a store. Therefore, abducing that Bob took the
yellow marble, from the observation of “the yellow marble filled jar” can lead to a false conclusion.
Unlike deductive and inductive reasoning, abductive reasoning is not commonly used for
psychometric testing.